Talent Presentation at the Miss America Pageant

Friday, May 28, 2010

From Glenn County to San Diego

Hi again!

These last few weeks are quite busy, so I will try my best to stay on top of blogging! :)

And now.. what you have all been waiting for! (Just kidding) But I am really excited to share a few pictures with you from my photo shoot a few weeks ago! These were taken by the extremely talented Cheryl Walsh. Check out her website at alt-senior.com

Last week when I wrote, I had just arrived in Sacramento. I took this picture at the airpot because I thought it was quite possible the most adorable support beam I have ever seen!

"Dancing" Connie (one of the Miss CA hostesses) picked me up in Sacramento and we gabbed all the way to Orland, just a couple of hours away. That evening, I attended the sponsor dinner for the Glenn County Fair and had the chance to eat dinner with the Miss Glenn County contestants and watch their rehearsal. They did "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" for their opening number... it was so cute! I talked to the ladies about the fair and they explained to me how they were "showing" their sheep and pigs at the fair the following day! Growing up in Orange County, I certainly had never heard of this before and I knew I had to see this! Not only were they showing sheep and pigs that they had raised, they were going to do so simultaneously while the pageant was happening!

The next morning, I visited CK Price Middle School and had the chance to speak with 4 classes of 7th and 8th grade girls. There were several hundred of them and they were wonderful! Jr. high girls sure do come up with some creative questions... from "What kind of deodorant do you wear?" to telling me all about their future dreams and aspirations, we sure covered a wide variety of topics!

From the middle school, Connie and I went to Merri's (another Miss CA hostess) house for lunch. She prepared a wonderful meal complete with biscuit brulee! Yum! Then we were off to get ready for the fair! On Thursday evening I had the privilege of attending the Glenn County Fair where I signed autographs and spoke about my experiences as Miss California. While this is not a Miss CA preliminary competition, the contestants competed in several categories including private interview, evening gown, speech and onstage question and I would like to say a big congratulations to Staci Bettencourt, Miss Glenn County 2010! Oh, and I also got to watch the girls show their sheep... it was too fun! Thank you so much to Connie and Russ and the Glenn County Fair board for inviting me!

On Saturday morning, I headed to Sacramento to visit UC Davis Children's Hospital and was joined by the lovely Miss Sacramento County Taylor-Paige Butler. We both had a wonderful time visiting patients and doing short interviews with local media. Lezlie from the hospital gave us a wonderful tour and we had a chance to play in the playroom and also visit the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where we saw a beautiful little baby girl who weighed only a little bit over 1 pound. It is truly miraculous to see what we can do with medicine nowadays and to see how small their little fingers and toes are!

After our hospital visit, we drove to Costco in Folsom. The Costco in Folsom is one of the largest sponsors of the CMN program at UC Davis Children's Hospitals and their team is doing an incredible job to raise money for CMN. Taylor and I walked around Costco greeting customers, took pictures with staff members and signed autographs. We saw the cutest children inside of Costco!

With Connie.. one last Starbucks before I headed home!

From there, it was a quick change of outfits in the car and off to the airport! As soon as I arrived in Orange County, I went straight to an event at church! Busy weekend! Yesterday I celebrated my 22nd birthday speaking at an event called "50+" at my church. It was so much fun! My grandma even came! I did an interview with Pastor Jim Kok and showed a powerpoint slideshow presentation of my year thus far as well as my talent from Miss America. I even got to have a question and answer session. I had a wonderful time and I would like to thank Wendy and Jim for inviting me, it was a fantastic event!!

With Coye, age 96 and her daughter age 69! They were so sweet!

Pastor Jim Kok (AKA Mr. Oprah for the day) interviewing me

Last night I celebrated my birthday with some family and friends and then packed up for San Diego! This morning I sprinted to make it on the train and now I am currently blogging from the train and getting ready for a weekend full of appearances in San Diego!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

P.S. In my next blog, I will talk about my trip to South Carolina back in November that we kept a secret until now!!

Countdown to Miss California 2010: 33 days and 21 hours!!

Quote of the week:

"Quit hanging on to the handrails . . . Let go. Surrender. Go for the ride of your life. Do it every day." -Melody Beattie